What Is Okonkwo's Tragic Flaw

In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo is the tragic hero. Okonkwo's temper and quickness to anger is his tragic flaw and is worsened by many things, particularly, white missionaries coming into his village. Eventually, his temper and the white missionaries influence on his fellow villagers,which Okonkwo cannot control, lead him to killing himself. His tragic flaw and the outside circumstances, singly, would not have led to his downfall; however, together they spiral downward to a tragic end. Okonkwo has many flaws, such as his refusal to appear weak and not wanting to be anything like his father, however, his main and tragic flaw is his temper. When Okonkwo gets angry he lashes out both physically and verbally. He aggressively beats all of his wives and also his children for trivial matters. Okonkwo's temper is so bad that he is not even able to control it when his culture insists he must. This is shown when he beats one of his wives during the Week of Peace, a week when no one is allowed to harm anyone: ¨In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace¨ (Achebe 29). The fact that he goes against Igbo law and tradition shows that his temper is his tragic flaw.

The Igbo culture and religion are very important to not only Okonkwo, but the whole Igbo tribe. The missionaries come into the villages and try to convert them to Christianity. At the beginning, ¨The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta¨ (Achebe 144). Many of the villagers were resisting the missionaries and they were refusing to convert. However, as time went on, more and more Igbo people started to convert and open up to the idea of Christianity. Okonkwo was not one of those